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Posting up fake reviews on Amazon is against the company's policies, but now Amazon has made it clear it also believes such activities can be against the law.

The giant of online retail has filed a lawsuit (PDF) in King County Superior Court against Jay Gentile, a California man who Amazon says created websites offering to sell verified Amazon reviews for between $19 and $22 per review. The websites sell varying packages of reviews, allowing users to buy as few as three reviews and as many as 100.

The offerings include "drip-feed delivery" and a "100 percent stick guarantee" for reviews, promising to replace any that Amazon deleted or filtered out.

"With our reviews you can ensure that you will get a high quality review which is left by an actual person who has tried your product," stated BuyAzonReviews.com, one of the websites Gentile is accused of running. The site said it used "real people that are sourced from all around the world," who wrote "high quality unbiased reviews on your products." The fine print added: "We are not receiving any money for your reviews nor are we paying reviewers. Your payment goes towards review sourcing, database management, and operation costs."

"The reality is far different," Amazon lawyers wrote. According to the complaint, Gentile said the reviewers don't need to have received their products, and the purchaser of reviews would be encouraged to "simply ship empty packages in an effort to fool Amazon into believing the reviewer was a 'verified purchaser.'"

Not many fake reviews got placed, but the ones that did "threaten to undermine the trust that customers, and the vast majority of sellers and manufacturers, place in Amazon," the lawsuit says.

Apparently Amazon or someone working for Amazon actually interacted with Gentile and purchased some reviews. The complaint explains how reviewers at BuyAzonReviews.com delivered a series of "glowing five-star reviews," as well as a single four-star review for realism, on a product they never received.

One reviewer hired by Gentile apparently complained directly to a user of BuyAzonReviews.com that she hadn't received the product. "All our reviewers know of the process and I am not sure as to why she sent this to you but I will ensure it does not happen again," Gentile responded, according to the complaint.

A graphic from a review-buying site that Amazon says infringes its trademarks.

Amazon has sued Gentile for trademark violations, because he used Amazon logos on his website, as well as false advertising and cybersquatting. The company says his website violates the Washington state consumer protection act.

The lawsuit claims Gentile ran BuyAzonReviews.com, and it names John Doe defendants as the owners of three other domain names it believes are related: buyamazonreviews.com, bayreviews.net, and buyreviewsnow.com. BuyAzonReviews.com has been taken down, but the other sites remain up.

The websites use slightly varying language while essentially making the same offers of reviews for sale. "You can either provide your own reviews or we can write them for you," one of them notes.

An e-mail from Ars to the website operator at BuyAzonReviews.com wasn't returned. Gentile, who promotes himself online as a Web designer and SEO expert, also didn't immediately respond to an e-mail. Amazon told The Seattle Times, which first reported on the lawsuit, that it wouldn't comment on the case.